My Home
by Kisuke17Night
Summary: Naruto was hoping life would go back to normal when it was all over. But when news of a Konoha nin taking out all the major crime lords of the Shinobi Nations is reported Naruto is sent out with a Team to find out who it is.


**A new fic for all the request I've been getting for one. Here it is! Hope you enjoy.**

**Summary:** Naruto was hoping life would go back to normal when it was all over. But when news of a Konoha nin taking out all the major crime lords of the Shinobi Nations is reported Naruto is sent out with a Team to find out who it is. Only thing is Naruto keeps running into Sasuke and he starts to wonder just why his former teammate seems to show up and disappear so often. Eventually Sasunaru Slash.

**My Home - Thousand Foot Krutch**

**This place is many things, but I'd never call it home.  
It's just a building in a city,  
everywhere I go.**

It had been three months since the War against Madara ended.

Three months since all the people in the ninja world came together to defeat one common enemy.

It had also been three months since Sasuke disappeared again.

It had only been two months since Tsunade retired and Kakashi was begrudgingly announced Hokage. It had been a month and a half since the rookie nine were all announced Jonin in every sense of the word. One month since Naruto, Sakura, and Sai had given up on locating Sasuke for a while. Not that the previous teammates would ever really stop trying to convince the Uchiha to come home. The trail was cold and with a tentative peace between the Shinobi nations there was no major place that stood out to start looking for him.

And a day hadn't gone by that Naruto didn't think of the Uchiha since the War.

Naruto snickered to himself as he walked to the Academy. He and Sakura were going to each be testing new Genin in the same way they were in what seemed like a lifetime ago. According to the information Naruto had been able to gather his students seemed promising. He was actually looking forward to giving the bell test to new genin and teaching them the same values he was taught. Naruto smiled as his hands laced behind his head and he entered the room where his students were waiting for him.

**Two Days Later: **

Naruto never wanted to do something like that again. It was worse than kicking puppies or that time he nearly killed that bunny in Wave Country. He sulked over to Ichiraku's and took up his usual seat and ordered two of all his favorites. After what he had done that afternoon he needed a pick me up meal.

"Hello Naruto."

Sai greeted as he sat down next to him. Naruto smiled weakly at his friend and Sai gave him an inquisitive face in return. Sighing he knew his emotionally challenged friend wouldn't fully understand what he was dealing with at the moment.

"I'm fine Sai. Just bummed out that my first chance at being a Sensei didn't go so well."

Sai nodded and the first two bowls of ramen were placed in front of the blonde. Before he started eating any he slid one of them over to Sai who thanked him silently and they ate in silence until the second round of ramen was brought out.

"Naruto! Sai!"

Sakura yelled from across the street when she recognized her teammate's backs in the stand. Both turned to greet her as she rushed across the street literally bouncing with excitement.

"Guess what?"

She pressed with a grin that rivaled Naruto's. Naruto returned her grin as he caught on to what she was implying.

"They passed?"

Naruto asked as his face nearly split in two out of excitement for his teammate. She nodded vigorously and Naruto stood up to hug her. The pink haired girl laughed and returned the hug just as fiercely. They both froze when they felt Sai join in on the hug and Sakura started to laugh as she dug deeper into the embrace. Naruto smiled and pulled away.

"Congratulations Sakura."

He was still smiling as he turned to Teuchi.

"Food's on me! We're celebrating tonight."

The man gave a full laugh as he congratulated Sakura on her success.

"What shall it be?"

He asked Sakura and Sai still grinning. They quickly made their orders and Sakura sat down on one side of Naruto as Sai returned to his original place on Naruto's other side. With all the excitement over Sakura's success Naruto had nearly forgotten his own failure.

"So Naruto how'd it go for you?"

Sakura asked still giddy over her day. She regretted asking as Naruto went from overjoyed on her behalf to nearly as gloomy as the two of them got over someone mentioning Sasuke.

"Oh Naruto I'm so sorry."

She gushed as she hugged him once more.

"Yeah it's fine. I mean Kakashi sensei didn't pass anyone before we came around, right? But tonight isn't about my fail it's about your success!"

He shouted excitedly, refusing to let his bad mood ruin this moment for his closest friend.

The three of them stayed at the ramen stand long after usual closing hours. Teuchi wasn't about to turn them away though. Sakura told her teammates everything she learned about her students and what they looked like and how they acted. Sai even drew little sketches on napkins of them from her descriptions. They talked about their old genin days and in Sai's case his ANBU training. Trading stories of when Sakura was trained by Tsunade and Naruto left with Jiraiya and how they both looked up to Kakashi and how he taught.

They eventually called it a night when each of them realized how tired they were. Sai had taken to sparring with various Chunin in a way of teaching them for their Jonin test and had been doing so all day before meeting Naruto. Both Naruto and Sakura didn't sleep much the night before and woke up early that morning out of nerves over their test. All three of them agreed it had been a long day and sleep was needed. Parting ways Naruto started the slow walk back to his apartment.

Surprisingly it was one of the few buildings that didn't have to be completely rebuilt in all the attacks. Sure there had been a few apartments in the building that were destroyed but his apartment wasn't even close to those. Tsunade and even Kakashi had told Naruto to move to a better apartment but he had refused both of them. Sure his apartment was small, some have even called it tiny. But he loved the place. It was where he grew up and where he always wanted to come home to at night, after a mission, or some new adventure. His apartment was home and nothing would change his mind about that.

After a quick shower and he filled out his report for Kakashi as to why he was failing his Genin this time Naruto crawled into bed.

'There was always next year.'

He thought in a way to comfort himself as he attempted to fall asleep.

Naruto woke up the second he felt that all too familiar chakra close by. For a second he considered jumping up and attacking his former teammate but another part of him told him to wait. So he pretended to still be asleep as the window opened. A few minutes went by and Naruto was mentally congratulating himself on his restraint when the silence was finally broken.

"Are you really just going to lay there?"

Sasuke asked. Naruto could hear the amusement in his voice and couldn't help the slight smile that landed on his face.

"I was just wondering what kind of messed up dream this was?"

Sasuke didn't reply and Naruto feared maybe he was still asleep. He had dreams like this before. One he had been running through a forest and found Sasuke injured and dying. Another was similar to this except Sasuke entered through the window and slit his throat before he could so much as blink.

Naruto opened his eyes and turned to the window where Sasuke sat. The Uchiha sat with his back to the outside world his still sandaled feet just barely touched Naruto's bed, he had changed the style of clothes he wore again, Naruto dully noted. Sasuke now wore a grey sleeveless vest that was closed and only exposed a little bit of the black mesh protective shirt he wore beneath, his pants were black and there were bandages from his black sandals to the center of his calves. The blonde teen wondered if he still bore his clan crest on his back as he tended to.

Sasuke's face was blank as usual and Naruto wondered what he could possibly be thinking about.

"Why are you here Sasuke?"

Naruto asked tiredly as he sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. The Uchiha tilted his head to the side a little before responding.

"And here I thought you would try and convince me to stay."

The blonde huffed a weak laugh as he looked over to the raven haired teen.

"Oh I haven't given up Sasuke not by a long shot. After what you did during that last battle I know you're not as gone as everyone seems to believe."

Sasuke drew his sword and held the blade to Naruto's throat.

"Are you sure?"

He asked darkly his eyes gleaming red with the Sharingan in the moonlight. Naruto grinned and pressed onto the blade.

"100%."

The raven haired teen withdrew the weapon and re-sheathed it. He leaned back tilting his head skyward to stare at the nearly full moon out. Naruto just watched not sure what was going on yet.

"Are you coming back yet?"

The blonde asked quietly. Sasuke didn't look away from the moon as he shook his head no. Naruto resisted the urge to sigh and another moment of silence passed between them as they sat there.

"Sasuke-"

"I saw you give that bell test today."

Sasuke cut in before Naruto could ask him once more what he was going there. The other was slightly shocked since he hadn't realized Sasuke had been nearby during the test.

"Those three would have never passed."

The Uchiha continued.

"I wanted them to though."

Naruto replied with a slightly sad smile.

"Why do you think they failed Naruto?"

Sasuke looked back to Naruto with his usual midnight eyes. Naruto shrugged, he knew how they failed but from everything he had seen they didn't fight with each other, didn't seem to really even know one another. Naruto would even go as far as calling their plan of attack clever to begin with. Except when he captured the girl and threatened to kill her and let the other two pass if they let her die neither of them did anything for the poor scared girl. Both willing to let her die if it meant they became Genin. It was sad and Naruto couldn't understand why they didn't even try.

"I haven't been able to wrap my head around that all day."

Naruto confessed with another one of his weak smiles.

"They lacked something the two of us didn't back when Team 7 took that test."

Naruto gave Sasuke a mildly confused face.

"And what's that?"

Naruto asked. Sasuke gave a nearly there smile to his hands that stayed laced in his lap before turning his once again blank face back to Naruto.

"Those kids went to school together. They might not have acted like it but they knew one another better than they knew you Naruto. They feared you more than they cared about someone they went to school with. Those kids lacked belief. The belief that they would be strong enough to take on an older stronger Shinobi."

Sasuke smirked as he paused.

"We never gave up when it came to the impossible Naruto. Because we believed."

Naruto laughed for real this time and didn't notice Sasuke smiling slightly at him. When he stopped he yawned and stretched. His eyes were serious and Sasuke wanted to run away from them. Those blue orbs seemed to pierce straight down to his soul. Not even the darkness of the night could hide him from those intense eyes.

"What are you doing here Sasuke?"

Naruto asked softly. Sasuke looked over his shoulder away from those too blue eyes before he answered him.

"I don't know yet."

His words made Sasuke sound so small and vulnerable Naruto wasn't sure how to react. It wasn't often the Uchiha showed any kind of emotion but the ones Naruto had seen were nothing close to this.

"You know you can come back right?"

He asked Sasuke seriously. The raven haired teen looked over to Naruto with hard eyes his Sharingan once again activated as they spun in anger.

"Not after everything they did to my family Naruto. This place destroyed any kind of honor it had the second they sent a thirteen year old to kill his whole family and join an organization full of blood thirsty killers."

Naruto nodded.

"Yeah. I know."

He replied with sad eyes. He knew what Itachi had done and why. The older Uchiha brother was someone Naruto wished he had gotten to know better and was glad he got to talk to when he did during the battle. He knew what Itachi had done and why. The older Uchiha brother was someone Naruto wished he had gotten to know better and was glad he got to talk to when he did during the battle.

"Itachi was amazing."

Naruto added with a smile as he thought of the man he had barely known but admired more than any Hokage for what he was willing to do to keep his village safe.

"He was. But I'm not."

Sasuke leaned his right shoulder in the frame of the window and rested his head there. Naruto realized he could barely keep his eyes open as he stared at Sasuke. He slumped back down into his bed and laid there looking at his former teammate.

"Everything's going to change soon Sasuke. Just you watch."

The last Uchiha watched as Naruto fought his fatigue and lost. He didn't move from where he sat until the sun started to turn the sky a pale pink. Watching Naruto as he slept and lost in his own thoughts.

"Maybe when you become Hokage I'll come back Naruto."

Sasuke leapt over the bed into the room where his old scratched Hitai-ate laid on a small table next to Naruto's newer black one. The Uchiha couldn't help smirking to himself as he picked up the black Hitai-ate. He tied the band onto his right bicep. He ran his fingers over the pattern of the Leaf symbol before leaving the apartment with one last look to the sleeping Naruto.


End file.
